Currently, employers are only required to give new employees a written employment 'contract' stating their main terms and conditions within two months of starting work.

Following the governments Good Work Plan, the requirements will change for those starting work on or after 6 April 2020. In summary, the changes are:

• The obligation will extend to 'workers' as well as employees
• It must be provided on or before the date on which they start work
• Only certain limited information can be provided later
• The

In the recent case of Casamitjana v League Against Cruel Sports an employment tribunal ruled that ethical veganism can be a philosophical belief worthy of protection under the Equality Act 2010.

It is well known that the Act (which protects against discrimination, harassment and victimisation) covers religion and religious beliefs. It is less well known that it can also extend to certain philosophical beliefs.

In concluding that the claimant's beliefs were worthy of protection the tribunal took into account his dedicated and strict adherence to

What are the letterhead requirements for companies and charities? Could you as an individual and/or the company/charity face possible prosecution and a fine of up to £1,000 with further fines of £100 per day being imposed?

Under the Companies Act 2006, a company registered with Companies House must include their company's registered name (as it appears on the company's certificate of incorporation) in all its business letters, order forms and websites, whether in hard copy or electronic, including:

• Notices and other official publications business

When a sole director of a company dies, there can often be difficulties. However, those difficulties are, perhaps, more evident where a sole shareholder dies who is also the sole director of a company.

The general position is that where a company has a number of directors and one of the directors dies, the surviving directors can continue to manage the organisation. If the sole shareholder of a company dies, the directors can continue to manage the company until the deceased shareholder's beneficiaries have the

The First-tier Tribunal recently considered the date to be stated in a notice to leave on or after which the landlord can expect to make an application to the Tribunal for eviction.

By way of background, where a landlord wishes to recover possession of a Private Residential Tenancy, the landlord must serve a notice to leave. The legislation sets out various requirements for the notice to leave. One of the requirements is that the notice to leave states a date on or after which the

Airbnbs and Short-Terms Lets have become a contentious matter in Scotland in recent times. The Scottish Government have recently conducted research into Airbnbs and Short-Term Lets in Scotland which confirmed there are 31,884 active Airbnb listings, three times as many compared to 2016.

It was found that in Edinburgh's City Centre 16.7% of properties are being used as Short Term Lets equating to an estimated 140,000 visitors to the area per year, around 4.5 times the local resident population.

The increasing popularity of Airbnbs and

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has published new guidance in relation to sexual harassment and harassment in the workplace. In this blog we will look at the guidance, and what it means for employers.

The Equality Act 2010 prohibits discrimination and harassment because of, or related to, one or more of the nine protected characteristics (age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation).

There is no length of service requirement for an

The recent First-tier Tribunal (Housing and Property Chamber) decision of Ritchie v Finlayson highlights the importance of providing sufficient evidence when making a claim against tenants for damage to the let property and contents.

When a tenant vacates a property there may be times when the property is not left in the same condition as it was at commencement of the tenancy. This could be a result of wear and tear or it could be as a result of failure on the part of the

In January 2020, the government confirmed that paid parental bereavement leave will be introduced for eligible employees on 6 April 2020. Here we look at the new entitlements, and discuss how employers can support staff going through a bereavement.

Quite amazingly, there has been no legal obligation for employers to provide paid time off for grieving parents. The Employment Rights Act 1996 affords employees the legal right to take 'reasonable' time off to deal with an emergency, which includes the death of a child.

Charities may be aware that Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) are asking all charities to report Notifiable Events. Whilst there is no legal requirement to report an event, OSCR are keen to encourage charities to report to them when there has been a significant event which may or may not have a negative impact on an individual charity or the wider charity sector.

Types of notifiable events can be as follows:-

• Fraud and theft
• Significant financial loss
• Incidents of abuse or mistreatment of

In the current economic climate, contractor default is even more prevalent in the construction and engineering industries. Therefore, Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) should always look to protect their position when entering into construction contracts by taking active steps to guard against the risk of potential insolvency of contractors.  Parent Company Guarantees v Performance Bonds - What option is best for you?

This is usually done by the contractor entering into a parent company guarantee or a performance bond which acts as security for losses sustained

The European Commission has released its updated public procurement thresholds that applies to Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) from 1 January 2020. Every two years, the European Commission updates the financial thresholds at which the EU Directives apply.

The Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015 set out specific procedures for awarding contracts in excess of the threshold values. Generally, when the value of a contract exceeds the thresholds (see below), it is a mandatory requirement that you publish a notice in the Official Journal of the European

The Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 (2001 Act) allows the landlord of a Scottish Secure Tenancy to recover an abandoned property without the need for court proceedings. Section 17, 18 and 19 of the 2001 Act deal with this procedure.

The procedure can only be applied where the landlord has reasonable grounds for believing that:

• the house is unoccupied; and
• the tenant does not intend to occupy it.

To ascertain if this is the position the Registered Social Landlord (RSL) should carry out diligent inquiries and

You have studied hard, attained your law degree and you are finally ready to be a Trainee Solicitor. Now, all that is left to do is to find a traineeship! But, how exactly do you do that?

Importantly, the answer to this is not the same for everyone. For some, the answer is more straightforward than others. They may have always have dreamt of being a high-flying Commercial Solicitor and know that this is what they intend to pursue. For others, they may fancy themselves

The Private Residential Tenancy regime provides that 'it is an eviction ground that the tenant has been in rent arrears for three or more consecutive months' (Ground 12 of Schedule 3 of the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016).

There appears to have been a perception that a landlord could serve a Notice to Leave relying on this ground as soon as a tenant entered into arrears. The landlord would then delay raising proceedings until such time as three consecutive months of arrears had accrued.

As we wake up this morning we are presented with the seismic shift in the landscape of UK politics with the Conservatives taking control of the House of Commons with a landslide victory. Whilst the reality of what lies ahead in the next 5 years remains to be seen, there will of course be an impact on employment law as a result of this election.

In their manifesto, the Conservatives proposed to create a single enforcement body for employment rights to enforce employment law

The key difference is that a wayleave does not have to comply with any strict rules of creation. Wayleaves provide rights similar to those found in servitudes but can be created without the need to identify a benefited property. Wayleaves are binding for a specified period and against successors in title rather than being personal to a grantor.

Reminder of what a servitude is

A servitude is a real right which attaches to land and is independent of ownership. It can only be created over

Choosing who you wish to implement the terms of your Will can be a difficult decision. After all, this is the person you will trust to ensure that your estate is administered according to your wishes. An executor is a person who is appointed by someone who is making a Will (also known as the testator) to carry out their instructions as set out in their Will.

If you have been appointed as an executor, several considerations should be borne in mind. Firstly, as an

It's rarely in the best interests of a landlord/tenant relationship to have to move a disagreement over deposits to court proceedings. In some instances though, it is an inevitable result of a landlord not adhering to the Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Regulations 2011. Between December 2017 and June 2019, there were over 200 cases where the tenancy deposit regulations had been breached and an award was granted against the landlord by the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland Housing and Property Chamber (FTT).

The regulations state

When you, or someone close to you, has been diagnosed with a deteriorating health condition thinking about day-to-day practicalities can be difficult, for example managing finances.

To allow someone to manage your day-to-day banking (but not open or close accounts or apply for overdraft) can be arranged by means of a Third Party Mandate. The account holder signs a mandate allowing the third party to pay bills and assist in managing the account on a day-to-day basis. This type of arrangement is suitable for someone